Originally, La Reforma was intended to provide public housing for low-income Tucsonans, but the start of World War II altered those plans. After Pearl Harbor, the 160-unit federal project became a housing complex for the defense workers that were flooding into Tucson.
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Star files
La Reforma housing project was demolished in 1984.
When the Tucson Housing Authority began work, in April 1941, on the 14-acre housing project at West 21st Street and South 10th Avenue, it was, as intended by the Public Housing Act of 1937, to provide homes for low income families. But, then came the start of WWII and Tucson quickly began to grow as a location for defense plants.
Those plants brought workers to Tucson and the workers brought their families. The average worker was married with two small children and housing was soon in short supply. The average wage was $2,100.
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In 1942, La Reforma, which was under construction, was repurposed into a housing project for the war workers. The National Housing Agency designated three local war plants whose workers would qualify for the housing. In order to move in a worker could not earn more than $3,000 a year.
Rents in the project ranged from $29 to $50. The units were from one to four bedrooms with living room, kitchen and bath. Appliances and landscaping were included.
The first tenants who moved in, during January 1943, were a family of four. The man, who worked at Consolidated Aircraft, had been living with his wife and two children in a two-room shack south of the city with no bathroom or gas, only water and lights.
Before La Reforma even opened there was a waiting list to move in and the units filled up as soon as they were finished. Said one worker “You can’t ask a man to do his job for the country when he’s livin’ with friends or in some small shack on the outskirts of the city with wind blowin’ through the cracks night and day.”
Following the war, La Reforma was established as a low-income housing project for the city. Many of the remaining defense workers had to vacate their units.
In 1977, the units were deemed structurally unsound and, by 1984, the project was demolished. Drachman Elementary School and Santa Rosa Park are now located on the land.
